Faced with increasing competition and the need to operate more like a business, public utilities are searching for opportunities to increase effectiveness and efficiency of all their available assets including people. Staff empowerment, job enrichment, team building, and total quality management are all methods of asset enhancement associated with a participative management style that, according to the current management literature, will lead any organization to the "promised land" of future success. However, it has been this author's experience that some public agencies that have initiated the change toward a participative management style have not experienced the anticipated ease of implementation and the expected results. What they have experienced, instead, is management and staff conflict, confusion, lack of focus, high level of personal and organizational stress, and loss of productivity. This paper addresses the key criteria necessary for implementation of a participative management style within a public utility organization. Discussions focus on the author's experience with a number of utilities and other public agencies, and observations of what has and has not worked in implementing this management style.